


Elemental

by NatiaRebmik



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: And the inbetween, Chandrila, Dreams, Dreamscapes, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Lucid Dreaming, Metaphysical feels, Nightmares, Reylo - Freeform, The Dark Side v The Light Side, The Force, Young Ben Solo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-12 16:54:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13551606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NatiaRebmik/pseuds/NatiaRebmik
Summary: It was then that Ben realised he had closed his eyes.Yet he wasn’t asleep.Yet he wasn’t awake.





	Elemental

**Author's Note:**

> **Re-formatted and edited this piece. It should flow better now. **

At night, Ben Solo dreamt.

Sometimes they were nightmares.

  
Sometimes they were night terrors.  
Wrenching him from his deep sleep, into a waking trauma.

  
Caught in the realm of subconscious, where he would wildly thrash against his mother’s desperate embrace.

 

Screaming, hurling every obscenity he knew (and even some he didn't), with a face frozen in horror at an unseen spectre. He was caught in the clutching, grasping obsidian fingers of a faceless phantasm.

 

The claws of a deep, despairing darkness, that refused to yield to his tormented wails. It would be a seemingly endless spiral of discontent, spewing forth a miasma of shapeless forms and mutilated hallucinations that were not quite there. Yet they were able to sink their talons into his young mind, the cerebral twist drawing out the torture of his corrupted meditations.

  
Eventually he would slowly calm, his long limbs relaxing and curling in on themselves into a foetal position. His face pressed into his mother’s nightgown, soaking it with his tears, sobbing until he would eventually succumb to pure exhaustion.  
  
  
He missed the frightened face of his father from the doorway, his mother’s tears silently slipping down her cheeks.  
Both would share haunted glances, unable to speak of those terrifying nocturnal moments that would leave them all drained and emotionally shattered the following day.  
  
  
And so, with no discussion came no resolution to the seemingly endless dreamscapes in which Ben was subjected to untold torture.  
  
  
However, there would be some nights of reprieve.  
  
  
Sweet nights, where Ben, instead of stumbling through the darkness, would find a place of calm and tranquility.  
  
  
As with his nightmares, there would be no clear substance or form. More thought and feeling, than tangible certainties.  
He could only know that a warmth would envelop him.  
It seeped through his feet, wicking up his long, thin legs. Spreading throughout his body with unrestrained fluidity. He would close his eyes, and let the sensation soften the frantic, anxious edges of his mind.  
  
Slowly, something… Someone… Would unfurl around him.  
A cocoon of absolute purity, rich and shining, enclosing Ben as if to protect him, nourish him. Feeding his tortured soul a sustaining elixir, to provide him with the fortitude to weather the storm ahead.  
  
  
Ben would sigh into this, and surrender himself.  
He would feel as small and helpless as the boy he was, but at the same time tall and protective, filled with a strength of which he couldn’t begin to fathom in his young mind.  
  
Then suddenly, the warmth would be gone.  
  
  
The dream would be over.  
He would wake in his bed, a small smile, and an overall warmth throughout his very being.  
  
***************  
  
And then.  
The light came.  
  
***************  
  
It was a warm evening that had Ben lying outside for far too long, gazing at the band of stars that were scattered thickly across the indigo Chandrilan Sky. 

  
The promise of a balmy thunderstorm played on the gentle winds that licked at the filmy, gossamer curtains that framed the French doors in his bedroom.  
  
  
In a rare moment of domesticity, both his mother and father were home.  
The small family had enjoyed a pleasant evening of a shared meal. His father had then seen to take time to help him work on the model T-65B X-Wing he had been struggling to complete.  
  
  
His mother sat close by, a stack of the usual datapads piled on the table in front of her.  
The infectious banter between father and son, and the ensuing laughter, proved too much to ignore however. Leia found herself embroiled in the intricacies of building a star fighter.  
  
  
Soon however, the young boy's yawns became larger and longer.  
His cheek was resting upon his hand, palm flat against the cool glass of the table they worked upon.  
His mother reached over and lightly stroked his exposed cheek with the backs of her fingers.  
He closed his eyes lazily, the softness of her skin against his own like a tactile lullaby.  
  
"Ben." She intoned gently.  
  
His long, dark lashes blinked once. Twice.  
  
"Come on, kid." He heard his father rumble, in his low, gravelly voice.  
  
Ben pulled himself to his knees, then looked up at his father and reached his arms out as he once had as a baby.  
His tired eyes grew wide with innocence.  
  
"Will you help me?"  
  
A soft huff of a laugh, and Han had gathered his son in his arms, transporting him to the bedroom.  
  
  
And so now, dressed in his night clothes, Ben lay flat on his back on the blanket he’d dragged out onto his balcony.  
  
Starlight.  
  
A star.  
  
A light.  
  
It was then that Ben realised he had closed his eyes.  
  
Yet he wasn’t asleep.  
  
Yet he wasn’t awake.  
  
He noticed the smallest sliver of light flicker in front of his eyes.  
It seemed so close, yet light years away at the same time.  
  
At first it was like a spark, that shimmered, brightened, then died.  
A few seconds later, it blinked again, and this time didn’t dim immediately.  
It pulsed, quietly and sure.  
Determined and almost strong-willed, the light steadily and slowly grew in its intensity and ferocity.  
  
Ben was momentarily dazzled, and threw his hands over his face.  
Then he chanced to peer through his fingers, entranced by the illumination unfolding before him.  
  
The light twisted and looped back on itself, growing steadily brighter and more luminescent.  
Finally it seemed to reach peak radiance, and settled itself to pulsating at a regular frequency.  
It kept a steady pace, that Ben found matched his heartbeat.  
  
Or had his heartbeat matched the light?  
  
What only mattered now was that they had found a sweet synchronicity.  
  
Ben slowly dropped his hands from his face, and gazed in wonder at the vivid illumination before him.  
  
It was solid and strong, as much as it was delicate and luminescent.  
  
He reached a hand out, entranced by the sight before him.  
  
He felt the strong, all-encompassing warmth touch his fingers, that found him in those dreams of light.  
The dreams where he felt the fortitude of another, intertwined with his own.  
Only this time, he felt there was more substance to this. It was not just another dream.  
It was not just another illusion that would eventually fade into obscurity in the morning light.  
  
The light was here.  
  
It was here to stay.  
  
It was here to guide him.  
  
To protect him.  
  
To challenge him.  
  
To reconcile with him.  
  
To surround him.  
  
To consolidate with him.  
  
To redeem him.

How long he spent there was unfathomable for him.  
All Ben knew was that gradually he began to feel his mother’s arms around him.  
Hear her voice gently calling him.  
Although he didn’t want to leave this dream?  
  
This vision?  
  
Ben knew that no matter where he was, he would now carry this vivid and bright star within him.  
  
Always.  
  
His eyes slowly blinked open in that moment.  
Ben gazed up at his mother.  
  
"Ben?" A look of concern, with a crease between those perfect brows.  
  
He reached up and touched his mother’s cheek.  
A beatific smile upon his lips.  
  
"It’s okay, Mama. She’s here now."  
  


**Author's Note:**

> My first Reylo fic... nothing huge. And more just a tangle of thoughts and feelings than any major plot. So I dunno, maybe it's not for everyone. *shrugs*
> 
>  
> 
> It's pretty much canon now that Ben and Rey know each other prior to their actual physical meeting. I like to headcanon that Ben witnessed Rey's birth in a metaphysical sense.  
> I have a very keen interest in elementals and lucid dreaming, and thought this idea leant itself nicely to combining both.  
>  
> 
> Lots of musical influences here but mainly the album from Raison D'être  
> [Metamorphyses](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKPlK6vcLuZ_sTLw9naMf_bJg58pRP6xE)


End file.
